A Gallagher Girls Summer
by BookkWorm
Summary: It's summer time in Roseville Virginia and Cammie and the girls have some big plans! Join them as they have the adventure of a lifetime, with a few surprises along the way. Takes place after Cross My Heart, but has events from the books that follow. Sorry if it gets a bit confusing.
1. Chapter 1

Warning: Characters are probably gonna be a little OOC and it's probably not gonna follow Ally Carter's Plot line.

Chapter 1

Another year down. I don't think I will ever get sick of Gallagher. Mace, Bex, Liz, and I were packing up for the beginning of our summer adventure. Call us crazy, but we planned out the summer in a pretty detailed way this year.

We decided to start out the summer at a house we rented right on the edge of the beach. My mom was gonna come with us and they house would put us right in the middle of everything. We had some great ideas for relaxation.

After about a month at the house we were gonna go our separate ways. Sort of. Bex was gonna go back to London to do stuff with her parents. Liz was heading back to Alabama to visit with her family. Macey and I were actually gonna stick together for the entire summer, when we go our separate ways, Mace and I are headed for the Hamptons. I secretly fear that she'll drag me to New York City to do some shopping before we stop on Long Island. I can honestly say I don't mind shopping but...let's just say the McHenry's take 'shopping' to a whole new level.

After our time apart we will head back to Gallagher for another school year. Hopefully I won't be the first girl back to the school like I have been every other year.

"Cam!" Bex's voice called me from my time in the shower.

"Coming!" I yelled back. I tried to steel myself for the inevitable. I wouldn't it above Macey to plan my wardrobe for the entire summer. She has nominated me to be her personal Barbie doll. As bad as it sounds, it could be worse. I actually don't mind it as much as I thought I would most of the time. Some days I like looking pretty. We've actually had some pretty funny times thanks to some of the crazy things Macey has tried on me.

"Hey Cammie, try this on really fast!" Macey threw some pieces of clothing at me as she went back to packing up her stuff for the summer. She recently cleaned out her closet so the rest of us got some new clothes. On the bright side it shouldn't take Macey too long to pack on the down side, it would probably take the rest of us longer to pack.

As I headed back to the bathroom change, I nearly tripped over some of my own things I still had to pack. As I was shutting the bathroom door I heard Liz manage to trip over something and fall to the ground

"Oopsy Daisy!" I stifled a giggle. You couldn't help but love Liz, no matter how many times she fell. I put on the outfit Macey had so kindly thrown at me. I'm not gonna lie, it was cute and kinda fit my personality. We were planning on leaving in an hour so I had on a pair of cut off denim shorts and an oversized black t-shirt with tribal designs with some white all stars. Cute and functional. I walked back into the room and tripped over the same dumb thing I tripped over going into the bathroom. Not surprisingly it was an old uniform.

For some reason seeing the old thing made me think of the past year. It was quite the year, my first boyfriend, my first CIA 'interview', and my first...Blackthorne boy. All of our first Blackthorne boys, well except for Macey.

"Hurry up Cammie, the limos will be here in a few minutes!" Bex yelled as she threw clothes into her suitcase. I hurriedly tossed the rest of my own clothes into my suitcase and looked around one last time for anything I could miss over the summer. In my rush to pack, I hadn't dried my hair or brushed it really so I ran a brush through it before throwing it into my bag with the rest of my stuff.

"We have to get our stuff downstairs, quick!" Macey yelled as she started her second trip down. I grabbed my two bags and followed my roommates down to the grand hall. We placed our suitcases on the front steps, ready to be loaded into the limo. It would take me, my mom, Macey, Bex, and Liz to the airport and we would be off to florida. I was so excited to spend time with my sisters this summer, I already knew it would be a summer to remember.

"Hey girls!" my mom called to us "Are you ready to have some fun?" she asked.

"Yeah!"

"Totally!"

"Looking forward to it!"

"This is going to be awesome!"

Our replies all over lapped each other and we burst into laughter. Some how the atmosphere had changed in the past few days with all the tests over, we seemed more relaxed and free.

" There may be some surprises in store for you this summer so remember to expect the unexpected" My mom said with wink. I couldn't help but let out a groan.

"You sound like Mr. Solomon!" I exclaimed

"What about me?" A voice spoke from the entry-way.

"Speak of the devil…" Bex muttered under her breath and we burst into poorly concealed giggles. He gave us a pointed look to let us know we heard him but we ignored it. This was our summer.

"Come on guys, time's a wastin!" Liz called as she lugged her dufflebag over to our limo. The rest of us followed suit, except for my mom who was whispering to Mr. Solomon. I nudged Bex and we tried to lip read their conversation. It made no sense to me, I only caught pieces of what they were saying when they were finished and my mom walked towards us I looked at Bex and she shrugged. Apparently she hadn't understood anything either. Drat.

"Plane leaves in 45 minutes ladies, lets go!" My mom cheered as she placed her own suitcase into the trunk. I climbed in beside my sisters and allowed myself a small smile as Macey handed us all a pair of Aviator sunglasses. This was going to be an _awesome_ summer.


	2. Chapter 2

Chapter Two

Two hours and 41 minutes later, we finally touched down in Florida. After the _wonderful_ travel on the plane (note the sarcasm), we were all _so excited_ for the hour car drive to the beach house we rented (again, sarcasm).

We settled in the car, with my mom and Bex in the front and me, Macey, and Liz in the middle seat. Word to the wise, whatever you do, don't try to race Bex to the passenger seat of the car, you'll end up with bruises. Trust me, I speak from experience.

During the car ride, I caught Macey writing in a notebook, I tried to see what she was writing, but she noticed me and rotated it so I couldn't see. I shrugged it off, it was unlikely I would be able to see anything through the dark lenses of my aviators. I decided to try to find out what was in it later.

A boring 5 minutes into the car ride, Liz had an excellent idea.

"Let's play the alphabet game!" she exclaimed.

"Never played." Macey said with a bored look.

"Are you kidding me?!" I asked her "You spend so much time on the road, how have you never played the alphabet game, it's like the ultimate road trip game." The truth of it suddenly hit me, I played that game with my dad that day we went to the circus.

"Well, how do you play?" Macey asked, seeming genuinely interested. As Lizzie and I explained the game, Bex started looking for the first letter in the alphabet. about halfway through our explanation Bex shouted:

"A!"

And the game began. The next 45 minutes were filled with screams and yells as we each found letters in the alphabet. Macey caught on quickly, and despite my mothers trash talk, we found she was rather bad at the game. She had only found 2 letters, I was leading with 6, Bex followed with 5, Lizzie and Mace were tied with 4 each. With only 5 letters left, we all had our eyes open. Eventually we reached the beach house and we were all startled as my mom yelled

"We're here!" Liz jumped about a foot in the air and I felt my pulse race with a small amount of adrenaline.

I rolled my eyes and started to unbuckle my seat belt.

"First come first served for room assignments!" called my mom as she went to open the door. We all raced out of the car and up through the house. Bex was in the lead and I was hot on her heels, Macey was right behind me and considering the fact that Liz was on the research and development track, she was keeping up pretty well, until she crashed into the table.

"Oopsy Daisy!" she called as she raced to make up time. We giggled a little as we ran upstairs and launched ourselves into rooms.

Mine was down the hall across from Bex with a queen size bed and good sized dresser and closet. It was an off white and a door led to the bathroom that connected with Macey's room.

Macey had a good sized room almost identical to mine but hers had a mirror in the corner, across the hall from her was Liz. Liz had the smallest room but it was decent size. She and Bex would share the bathroom at the very end of the hall, with a closet in between the two rooms. I knew we would probably all end up sharing the bathroom between me and Macey's room.

My mom's room was downstairs with a master bathroom branching off just down the hall from the kitchen. The opposite way of the kitchen, there were some couches and love sacs with a T.V. and movies, a door on the left of that lead to another bathroom. With a pool in the backyard and our private stretch of beach, the house was nice. The kitchen was a good size, with modern appliances and I decided that we wouldn't let my mom near them. She would probably end up destroying the microwave.

As Macey and Bex unpacked, Liz and I explored the backyard. The beach started a few yards away from the pool. There was a shower to rinse off the sad and a fire pit just past the back door. I could already picture the nights to come.

But adventures would have to wait. It was barely five o'clock and I was already exhausted. As Liz and I went back inside, we chatted mindlessly about what we planned to do over the next month.

"We'll have to have s'mores at least once." She said. I nodded my agreement.

"And we'll go on at least one night swim in both the ocean and the pool." she gave a small smile as she picture us crashing us through the ocean in the dark.

"Hey girls! Do you mind if I order pizza for dinner?" my mom asked as we started up the stairs.

"Nope, sounds good" we said with a smile

"I can already guess what kind you girls want" she said with a wink. I started to grin. No matter what anybody said, we were carnivores and we loved nothing more than a pizza covered in pieces of sausage bacon and pepperoni.

"Cam! Come unpack, I need your bathroom stuff!" Macey called from our joint bathroom.

"Lizzie, I need yours too!" Bex's british voice echoed from their bathroom.

"By the way," Macey said as she appeared in her doorway "we are waxing tonight, and you two are not getting out of it."

I stifled a groan and went towards my room. I gave Liz a mock salute and she smiled and repeated the gesture, almost knocking the sunglasses off her head. I grinned at her as I walked backwards down the hall, almost running into Bex.

"Careful Chameleon" She said in a mock serious tone. Her huge smile told me she was trying to get me to run into her.

"You wanna fight Duchess?" I asked her smiling. I put my fists up in an overexaggerated defensive state.

"Definitely!"

"Then put up your dukes!" I teased her and just as we were going to start circling each other, Macey came out.

"Nobody is fighting anybody until Cammie unpacks." She turned me towards my room "March." She said simply.

I dragged myself through the door and quickly threw clothing into drawers and even took the time to hang up shirts. Almost twenty minutes later I brought my bathroom stuff to Macey who was vigorously arranging and rearranging her products.

"Finally, stay in here just so you know where everything is. " I leaned against the wall as Macey added my things into the row of cosmetics on the counter. She occasionally asked my opinion and I gave her the best answers I could think of. Sometimes they were satisfactory and sometimes they weren't. Yet another half an hour later, Macey was finally content with the way it was arranged.

"Make sure if you use anything you put back exactly where you found it." she tells me sternly and I nod.

"Can I go spar with Bex now?" I asked pleadingly

"Yes, I suppose" She said with a roll of her eyes. I smiled and raced to change.

I put on a pair of tight black athletic shorts (the loose ones drive me insane) and one of my exercise shirts from P&E at Gallagher. After tying my laces, I went to find Bex. She just so happened to be in her room. I banged on the door.

"WHAT?!" She yelled

"You wanna spar or what?" I yelled back

She appeared at the door grinning like a mad man.

"Let's go." I smiled back at her as we headed for the beach.

As we reached the sand, we pulled off our socks and shoes for better traction on the somewhat slippery surface.

We started circling each other. I loved sparing with Bex because it was a challenge. I knew her better than anyone else, but she knew me in ways that not even my mother knows me. I could predict her moves as easily as she could mine. Add that to the fact that Bex had moves that she was forbidden to pull in sparring matches, it made for one interesting fight.

Bex moved first, she always does. We fell into a familiar routine of punch, block, kick, duck, lunge, until we hit an unfamiliar element. We had traveled closer to the water, we were on the wet sand. I was distracted by this fact when Bex tackled me head first into the water. We went down spluttering and came up laughing. We sat there with smiles on our faces when I reached down, grabbed a handful of sand and threw it in her face.

"Oops" I said faux innocently with a grin on my face. She glared at me and threw sand back at me and laughed.

"Oh, you're going down." I said with a serious look on my face. I grabbed some sand and tangled it in her hair. That stopped her laughs real quick. She shoved some sand down the back of my shirt and I returned the favor by shoving some down her shorts and when she bent down to return the favor, I put sand down her shirt. Both of us were dripping in mud and sand, but we kept going. We laughed and threw sand and Bex even got some in her mouth! About half an hour later, Liz came to see what was so funny. We looked at each other and flung some sand at Liz. She gave us a death glare before joining our fight. She had only been with us for fifteen minutes before she was as drenched as we were. My mom and Macey were the next to come out. None of us dared throw sand at either of them. My mom produced a camera from her pocket and took a picture. We gave the camera a cheeky pose.

She grinned at us and said "Rinse off the sand before you come inside. Liz you can come shower in the downstairs bathroom. Pizza will be here in about half an hour. " Macey laughed at us before heading inside.

We hurried to rinse off and then inside to shower. We tossed our clothes into the laundry basket.

"Food's here!" Macey called. We raced down stairs and sat at the table in the kitchen.

"I was wondering how long it would take you girls to de-sand yourselves." My mom said with a wink.

"Weelllll," I drawled "We wouldn't have to 'de-sand' if it weren't for Bex" I shot a teasing look at my best friend.

She stuck her tongue out at me. "Don't act like you didn't throw any sand," she said with her british accent leaking through "in fact, I think you were the first to throw sand."

"So we have Cammie to blame for the sand everywhere?" Liz asked in her southern drawl with her eyebrows raised.

Macey laughed a little at the idea of me starting a fight "Boy, am I glad I wasn't involved in that little fight" she said as she took a big bite.

"Don't worry Mace, we'll get you in the next one." I said back.

We laughed and dug into the pizza. We ate 2 boxes of pizza in no time flat. As we were clearing our plates, my mom inquired as to what we planned to do next.

"You girls want to watch a movie?" she asked

"We would love too, but we're waxing tonight" Bex answered.

Liz and I groaned.

"Come on girlies." Macey said as she lead us upstairs, to our doom.


	3. Chapter 3

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	4. Chapter 4

Chapter 4

"Rise and shine!" Macey's voice came echoing in through my room. "Cameron Ann Morgan! Get your butt out of bed right now! We have things to do!" She said in a sing-song voice. I smiled in spite of myself.

"Coming!" I managed to call back.

"Does that mean you can help me get Bex out of bed?" Liz's timid voice called from across the hall. I pulled myself out of my bed, too excited for the chance to shove her out of bed.

"Rebecca Baxter, you have exactly 3 seconds to get out of bed before I make you get out of bed." I received no response. "3...2...1" I pulled her arm hard so she landed on the floor at my feet. She lifted her head and glared at me and I gave her a smug smile "I'm going to shower!" I called to my friends.

"Oh no you don't!" Macey stopped me "You showered last night and that's good enough, hurry and get dressed, I have this great idea for your hair today."

I hurried to put something on. I decided to wear some high waisted cut off jean shorts with a short black shirt that just met the top of the shorts. After sliding on some converse I deemed myself ready. I headed into the bathroom and raised my eyebrows at Macey in a question.

Macey looked me over, turned back towards her room and handed me a large flannel shirt to go over the outfit. She nodded once I put it on and motioned for me to sit in the chair. She pulled the french braid out of my hair and it fell in pretty waves. She sprayed it with something unlabeled. _Must be illegal _I decided. she scrunched my hair in her hands and smiled.

"Perfect," was all she said and I have to admit, I kind of liked the way it looked. "Let's go see if Liz and Bex are ready."

We walked in the hall as Liz and Bex exited their bathroom.

"You guys ready?" I asked Liz nodded.

"Wait!" Bex yelled. She ran into her room and came out carrying a perfume bottle. She sprayed all of us. "Now we match" she said with a smile and we laughed. We clamored down the stairs and I went to go find my mom.

"You ready yet mom?" I called from the hallway and she emerged from her room with her purse in hand.

"As ready as I'll ever be!" She smiled at me "Come on, we'll find something to eat on the way to town."

"Shot gun!" I yelled as I ran past my roommates towards the car. I reached the car, jumped in and locked the door. Bex's face was pressed up against the car window and I made a silly face at her. She laughed then climbed into the backseat.

As soon as my mom turned on the car, I started surfing channels to find a good radio station. I finally found something that sounded somewhat modern, I turned around in my seat a little to see what the girls were talking about.

"Young Tom Cruise is definitely more attractive than a young George Clooney" Bex argued.

"You're insane!" Macey argued "George Clooney was way more attractive than Tom Cruise!"

"Emphasis on _was_" Bex added

"As entertaining as this is," I added in "I'm going to have to agree with Macey here." I said shooting a sorry look at Bex.

"What about you Liz?" Bex asked, no doubt looking for some support.

"Sorry Bex…" She said shyly.

"I can't believe this!"

"I'm with you Bex, Tom Cruise was always a cutie." My mom added in.

"At least someone in this car has some common sense" Bex said smugly. She folded her arms and gave us all a look.

"I hate to break it to you Bex, but my mom isn't exactly the best person in the world to have for back up unless you're in the field." I explained. Macey and Liz nodded their agreement.

"Alright, enough of this, where are we going first?" my mom asked

"We're shopping for food today then headed back to hang out at the beach. Other shopping will be done next week." Macey said my mom nodded in agreement.

"Sounds good," She said "but I feel like I should warn you, I can shop for hours and don't plan on stopping until I'm satisfied with all purchases."

Macey grinned "That, I can handle."

A few minutes later, we pulled into the parking lot of a grocery store in the closest town. My mom rattled off some items for each of us to find and we spilt up going up and down the aisles looking for our items. As we went our separate ways, I had a brilliant idea. I pulled Bex and Macey aside.

"CoveOps challenge: add something to someone's cart without them noticing." I whispered they smiled excitedly and hurried off to their aisles. I went into my own and almost immediately a way to complete my challenge. I grabbed a packet of soup mix off the shelf next to me and started towards the, admittedly cute, boy down the aisle.

As I walked up next to him, I looked intently at the jars in front of us. I 'accidentally' bumped into him and slipped the soup mix into his basket.

"Oh my gosh!" I exclaimed "I am so sorry!"

He smiled at me "It's no problem, no harm no foul right?" I grinned back at him. "I'm Jake, by the way" He held out his hand for me to shake.

"Cammie" I replied shaking his hand softly "I really am sorry, but I should go find my friends" I started backing away faux nervously.

"Okay, great meeting you Cammie"

"You too, Jake" I smiled at him one last time and gave a small wave.

Mission accomplished.

I hurried to find my items, and went to meet my mom and friends at the register. The cart was full of frozen items or things that could me made easily. It was clear my mom didn't plan to make anything from scratch. I was relieved, at least with frozen and boxed foods we could keep her from poisoning us.

"We were wondering when you would show up." Bex said smiling at me 'Mission accomplished?' she mouthed at me and I gave a small nod in response.

"Alright girlies, I want to go to the beach so let's get these suckers into the car and head on home!" Liz exclaimed

The drive home was full of lots of laughing and many punches. We made up a game, whenever we saw someone driving distracted, we got to punch the person next to us. I sat next to Bex and Macey in the back with Liz in the front, we didn't want to get bruised too bad. Don't let her size fool you, Liz can throw a mean punch.

By the time we reached the house, we all had bruises on our arms and legs but we laughed the whole way in the house.

"You girls go change, I'll put the groceries away" my mom said after we had finished carrying in the bags.

"You sure?" Macey asked

"Definitely, go have fun" my mom waved us off with a smile.

We ran to go change, I slipped into my borrowed bikini and left my hair down. I grabbed my bag and went out into the hall the girls were all there waiting, except for macey. She came out about 30 seconds later with her sunglasses on her head and her iPod dock in hand.

"Let's go have fun!" Liz screamed and we raced out to the backyard.

The first thing we did was plug in Macey's iPod dock. After our summer playlist was blaring across the pool, we put on a combination of tanning oil and sunscreen.

I was the first to finish coating myself in the mixture, so I started dancing around goofily, waiting for the girls. Bex was next and she joined me in hopping around like an idiot.

"Do you guys remember that dance we made up in 7th grade?" Liz asked us

"I haven't thought about that in years!" Bex exclaimed

"Me either" I admitted as I smiled "Hey Mace, do you have 'Evacuate the Dancefloor' by Cascada on your iPod?"

She shrugged "Maybe, will you teach me the dance?"

"Of course!"

"Duh!"

"Why wouldn't we?" We exclaimed, She smiled at us.

"I think I still have it."

And 'have it' she did. We spent the next couple of hours on the sand trying to remember the dance we made up in 7th grade and modifying it to more modern moves. We laughed (Mostly Bex), tripped (Mostly Liz), replayed the song (Mostly Macey) and danced ridiculously (Mostly me). After about 2 and a half hours, we finally had the dance down. It was awesome.

"Food!" my mom called and we ran inside for lunch. We were met with plates of sandwiches and chips. We shoved food into our mouths for a while, then we went back outside.

"As much fun as dancing is," Liz began "can we go swimming now?" she pleaded I looked at Bex.

"Absolutely Lizzie" Bex said sweetly and Liz smiled, then as if by some invisible que, Bex and I picked liz up and threw her into the pool with smiles on our faces

"I should've known something was up!" She exclaimed as she made her way to the side of the pool "You never call me 'Lizzie' unless you're about to prank me!" Bex and I stood by the edge of the pool laughing. In the end, the joke was on us. Macey came up behind us and shoved us forward. Thanks to our spy-like reflexes, we managed to grab her arms and pull her in with us. When we came up for air, we burst out laughing.

We played in the water for hours. We played games like Marco, Polo and Sharks and Minnows but stopped when Liz ran into the side of the pool and got a bloody nose.

"How about we try surfing?" Macey suggested "I saw some boogie boards and surfboards by the side of the house earlier."

"Sure!" Liz exclaimed

"I like a challenge" Bex decided

"What were you doing on the side of the house?" I asked waggling my eyebrows at her. We laughed again and went to find the surfboards. We found half a dozen surfboards and just as many boogie boards. Macey, Bex, and I all grabbed a surfboard but Liz decided to stick with a boogie board. We rinsed the boards off as well as we could with the hose and headed out towards the water.

We quickly discovered a few things. First, we discovered that Bex couldn't stay on a surfboard for longer than 5 seconds at a time. Then we discovered that Macey and I weren't bad at surfing, at least we picked it up pretty quickly. Lastly, we discovered that Liz was better at surfing then all of us combined. She quickly exchanged her boogie board for a surfboard and we spent the rest of the afternoon getting the hang of staying up on the boards.

After a while, my mom called us in for dinner.

"You girls have been out there all afternoon!" my mother exclaimed as we sat down to eat frozen pizza.

"Why is that so surprising?" Macey asked between bites of food.

My mom shrugged "I didn't think it would be this easy to entertain you" she said honestly Bex laughed and I rolled my eyes "I think I'm going to try my hand at surfing with you after dinner" she said thoughtfully. We shrugged indifferently, we just wanted to get back in the water.

"How about we watch a movie tonight?" I asked, after being outside all day I was a little exhausted.

"How about we have a marathon tomorrow?" Bex asked "We could have the first of many lazy days to come" she added with a smile. It sounded amazing

"Sounds good to me" I said

"I could paint everyone's nails!" Macey exclaimed

"Awesome!" Liz said and the plans were set.

After hurriedly washing the dishes, we ran back outside, this time with my mom with us. We showed her where the surfboards were. We grabbed our boards and headed out to the ocean. It was still light out, but the sun had started going down.  
We surfed until the sun was at the end of it's journey. Not surprisingly my mom was amazing at surfing and rivaled even our little Lizzie. As the sun set on an amazing day, my mom went back to shore as we sat holding hands on our boards to keep us close as we watched the colors light up the sky. The silence was comfortable and as I looked to my right and left I knew that these were the best friends I was ever going to have. I squeezed Bex and Macey's hands and they smiled at me. I couldn't wait for the days to come throughout the summer.


	5. Chapter 5

**A/N: Sorry guys, weekends are bad for me/: **

**There have been some guesses as towards the guy in the last chapter and let me just say I'm not quite so cliched as you would believe me to be(: **

Chapter 5

I slept longer for a really long time. It's really incredible, I didn't think I could sleep that long. I wish I could say that I slept in the longest, but Bex beat me by a whole half an hour. Apparently Liz woke up first followed by my mom both of them before 9:00, Macey came not to long after them at 10:00, with Bex and I coming in last around 11:30.

We set up the supplies for our lazy day. I took a shower, and changed into some pj shorts and a t-shirt. I ran a brush through my hair quickly and ran back downstairs to see how the set-up had progressed.

It looked really good. They had arranged the couches and love sacs in a circle and put nail polish, nail polish remover, snacks, and drinks on the table in the middle of the circle. We made some choices on movies and put the first one in to play.

In a true lazy day fashion, we had a fantastic list of Chick Flicks to watch. We had Dirty Dancing, Mean Girls, 13 Going On 30, 50 First Dates and of course, no chick flick marathon is complete without at least one Nicholas Sparks movie so we chose The Notebook. A movie guaranteed to make even Bex cry.

I grabbed a water bottle and leaned back in the couch next to my mom and Liz to watch Dirty Dancing. I loved sitting by Liz during movies, she was quiet and wasn't a blanket hog when it was cool enough to have one, but one of the downsides of sitting with Liz meant that Macey and Bex sat next to each other. That never ended well.

"This movie is so cliche" Bex.

"That's the point, it's a chick flick" Macey.

"When's there gonna be any action."

"There isn't any kind of action you'll like, it's a chick flick" Macey.

"As you mentioned, barely 20 seconds ago" Bex.

"I mentioned again because it didn't seem as if you heard me the first time" Macey.

"I heard you, it just seemed like a lame reason" Bex.

And so it continued for half an hour before my mom finally got sick of it and switched places with Bex. Good news, they stopped arguing. Bad news, she started whispering to me.

"I feel a dance number coming on...Called it." I rolled my eyes and shushed her.

"Abortion is bad!" Bex threw a gummy bear at the screen

"And he looks her lovingly in the eyes…" She narrated I slapped her arm and winced as she punched me back.

"Public Display of Affection," she covered my eyes "this isn't for children to see" I ripped her hands away from my eyes and slapped arm again.

"The dancing even isn't that good, I could do this in my sleep" she complained.

After about 45 minutes of this, the movie was almost over and I was so sure that I could handle her until the end of the movie, then I could switch with Liz and it would be fine.

"Oh no! Here comes daddy! Ten bucks says she sneaks out to see him." Bex whispered in my ear. "Hey, she snuck out just like you did, I so called it." I took a deep breath and turned back to the screen. "That guy's dumb!" she claimed moments later "he's going to go to jail for no reason!" And I snapped. I shoved Bex as hard as I could and she tumbled on the floor.

I started laughing at the look on Bex's face. She looked so surprised and I just couldn't help it. Soon Liz joined in with me and then we were all laughing. After a few minutes Bex started laughing with us, we laughed so hard for so long we missed the end of the movie.

"Okay, I'm going to start painting nails now." Macey said as she slid to the floor. "Liz first"

We put in Mean Girls and this time I joined Bex in quoting things from the movie moments after they happened. We laughed at the over exaggerations for a while, then Macey called me down to get my nails painted. She had painted Liz's fingernails a pretty turquoise color and her toes a silver color.

She handed me a coral color and a white one with a question in her eyes. Would these work? I nodded my permission and she got to work. She had done Liz's nails with just the solid color on her fingers and toes but she got creative on mine. She did white dots on the coral on all my fingers except for the fourth one, she painted that one plain white. On my toes, she did the reverse. She put the overcoat on first, which struck me a little odd but she gave me a look that said 'trust me' so I let her. She put over coat on again when my nails were dry and she sent me back to watch the movie and called Bex.

After Bex, my mom did Macey's nails and Macey did my mom's nails after. Bex had a mix of black and red on her nails. It was so Bex. My mom did Macey's nails with neon pink and gray and my mom had blue and green nails. They looked great.

We sat down in the circle again to watch the end of the movie, when my mom dropped a bomb on us.

"So, Mr Solomon might stop by sometime soon." she announced

"What?" we all asked simultaneously and she smiled.

"Joe Solomon, your CoveOps teacher, might stop by in the next week or so."

"Why?" Bex, Macey, and I all voiced. I think Liz was in shock.

She shrugged. "Just to say 'hi' I suppose."

"When did he tell you he would be 'dropping in'?" Bex asked in her british accent.

"He called last night" she said, sounding nonchalant.

"Is there something else you're not telling us?" I asked suspiciously. Joe Solomon didn't 'stop by'.

"That's it!" she said as nonchalantly as possible, which only made me more suspicious. It was obvious that we wouldn't get anymore information out of her, so I let it go. I saw the girls eye her suspiciously one last time, then turn back to their individual activities.

"Okay, it's officially late enough that I want food" I said as I jumped to my feet and Bex followed right after. My mom stretched and stood up with us.

"How about breakfast for dinner? That's one thing I never managed to mess up." she suggested.

"Yes!" Liz exclaimed and ran to the kitchen to start pulling out ingredients. We giggled a little at our over-enthusiastic friend.

"You know, I don't think I've ever made my own breakfast before." Macey said as she hauled herself to her feet.

"Really?" Bex and I asked simultaneously. We looked at each other and laughed.

My mom threw her arm around Macey's shoulder "Well there is a first time for everything" she said as she herded us towards the kitchen. "Bex, you start mixing some scrambled eggs, Liz you can start on the pancake batter, Macey, you and Cam can pull out the bacon and I'll fry up some potatoes."

We all set to work. Macey and I dodge hot grease and grappled for space in front of the stove. About half way into our cooking, the kitchen smelled amazing. My stomach started to growl. Macey giggled.

I glanced over at her. "What are you laughing at?"

She smiled at me "You. Actually, more like your stomach." Just then her stomach growled. I laughed for a minute and she joined in.

"Looks like I'm not the only one who's hungry" I got in between giggles. We flipped the bacon one last time and put it on a plate covered in paper towels to help drain some of the grease.

We placed it on the table just as everyone else finished with their food. We put plates, cups, milk, syrup, butter, peanut butter, salt, and pepper on the table and sat down to eat. We all grabbed a healthy amount of each food and settled down to eat.

We sat making idle chatter, when my mom's phone rang.

"Hello?" We all sat frozen hoping to catch the other end of the conversation. "Hi Joe!" We all perked up even more. "Yeah I told them. They seemed excited. Tomorrow? Okay see you then!" she hung up her phone.

"Joe Solomon is coming?"

"He's going to be here tomorrow?"

"Why is he coming?"

"Are we going on a mission?"

"How long is he staying?"

"_Where_ is he staying?"

"Are you and Joe Solomon dating?"

"GIRLS!" She interrupted our interrogation. "Joseph Solomon and I are just friends" she said with a pointed look at Macey who asked the question. "He will be staying here with us, yes he'll be here tomorrow morning, we are not going on a mission, and he will stay as long as he pleases" she finished with a breath out. "Any more questions? Good"

She totally didn't give us a chance to answer, I for one had plenty of questions, for example WHAT was going on? My roommates and I exchanged looks, tonight we would explore any and all possibilities.

I crept silently towards Bex's room with Macey at my side. We decided to meet in Bex's room because it was the farthest to the stairs, at least that's what we told Bex. It was really to make sure she was awake at this important meeting.

Liz was already there when we reached Bex's room. As soon as Macey shut the door, we exploded in whispers.

"I can't believe _Solomon_ is coming _here_." Bex said

"Imagine what Tina would say if she found out" Macey said thoughtfully.

"She is NOT going to find out, right?" I said forcefully looking each of my friends in the eye. "How much time do we have before Solomon get's here?" I asked Liz.

"Seven hours and 14 minutes. Approximately" she said tiredly. She looked like she was going to fall asleep. We stayed up later than normal watching the last three movies on our list. And then another one. Joe Solomon was predicted to appear at 0900 hours at least. We planned to be up and ready for the day to catch any information on why he was here.

"As much fun as guessing what Joe Solomon might be doing is, we should probably get some rest. I want to do your hair tomorrow." she said looking at me. I nodded in reply.

"Night guys" I said as Macey and I headed back across the hall. I assume Liz decided to go back to her room later.

Macey and I parted ways with a small wave and I crashed on my bed. I wasn't sure about a lot of things, but one thing I was positive of this, tomorrow was going to be one heck of a day.


	6. Chapter 6

**A/N So Super Sorry, it was impossible to get on the computer this week. Things might get a little confusing in this chapter, so bear with me, I'll try to clear up what has happened and hasn't happened towards the end of the chapter**

Chapter 6

At precisely 7:30 the next morning, we woke up and began preparing for the day. We kept our eyes out for anything out of place as we got dressed, we searched for anything unusual as we did our hair and looked for anything strange as we ate breakfast. We maintained constant vigilance. All the while I was running different scenarios of what Joe Solomon was doing coming to visit us. Almost none of them were very good, and the few that were good, were less than unlikely. I know, I had Liz check my math.

At precisely 9:15, an approaching car could be heard. Not a moment later, it pulled into the driveway and we went to greet our guest. The second he got out of the car, he called out to us.

"Surprise summer homework." he carried his bags to the door, threw them inside and then lead us back out into the car. My mom sat in the front next to him as Macey, Bex, Liz, and I climbed in the back seat. Bex volunteered to go all the way in the back to the set of three seats behind me Macey and Liz.

"Your objective is simply ladies" My mom surprised us all by breaking the silence. "Keep your eyes open for anything and anyone. We'll be around if you need anything." She handed us each a 50 dollar bill. "I presume you have com units?" She asked. We pulled them out of our pockets and turned them on. It wasn't likely we would leave each others sides but if we did, we had a way to keep in touch.

"We don't plan to leave until 11:00 tonight, you have the whole day for this ladies. Good luck" Mr Solomon said as he pulled the car to a stop a few yards from the beach. Scratch that, from the beach _carnival_. He smiled "and have some fun."

We climbed out of the car and stood for a minute just taking in our surroundings. We had placed our coms in our ears while we were still in the car. We had the volume down and would turn it up if we needed them.

"If you guys don't mind, I'd rather not stand here all day." Macey said as she fell flawlessly into her cover, a harsher version of herself. She walked off towards the carnival with the rest of us falling in behind her.

Our official cover for the summer was pretty much the same as when we went into town back at Gallagher. We were a bunch of prissy rich girls. Macey had been doing this flawlessly since day one and Bex took to it pretty quickly too. Liz and I had a more subtle approach. We were obviously rich, yet we had quieter personalities. Mostly we took some of our traits and put them to the extremes.

"Ooooo, can we get churros?" Bex asked excitedly.

"Yeah!" I agreed, churros sounded insanely good. I whipped around to look at liz but in doing so I made a 180 and got a good look at our surroundings. Nothing suspicious yet.

"Sounds good to me." Liz said as she shrugged her shoulders. We all turned to look at macey. She rolled her eyes.

"Fine." We herded ourselves to the nearest churro line.

"What can I get for you girls?" The vendor asked us kindly. He was an older man, a little on the chubby side.

"Four churros" Macey said as she handed him her $50 bill.

"I'm going to have to get change for you young ladies, just one moment." He walked out of earshot, pulled out a phone, and held it to his ear.

"This guy seems a little too familiar if you catch my drift" Bex whispered without moving her lips.

"He's too suspicious, we need to keep an eye out for him" I said back in the same tone.

"What makes you say that?" Liz asked as she pretended to play with her hair.

"When he pulled out his phone, he didn't dial a number" I said as I bent down to fix my shoelaces.

He walked back towards us with a huge smile on his face. It seemed almost...youthful. "Well ladies, I will have the rest of your change in a moment, for now, enjoy your churros." He said as he handed each of us one.

There wasn't really an opportunity for him to poison it, so we all started eating. I kept an eye out for my mom and Mr Solomon. I wanted to figure out what was going on. A few minutes later, a short man a few years older than the churro man appeared.

"You needed change?" He said as he walked up to churro man. He seemed to say it a little louder than necessary, as if he wanted the people around him to hear.

"Yessir, for a 50." Churro man replied.

"Well heck, you didn't mention it was a 50, I only got fifteen bucks on me, I'll call Ryan." Short guy said.

"Just get him over here quick, they've waited long enough." Churro man said impatiently. "Have him bring Beck too, I need him to make a supply run."

Short guy pulled out his phone, and again, put it right to his ear. He spoke into his 'phone' for a few seconds then came back and stood next to us. He hitched his pants up and tried to act nonchalant. He would've been fine, if he hadn't so obviously forced his mannerisms. A few minutes later, yet another guy showed up. This guy was the worst one yet. He looked too aged, like he was trying to act a whole lot older than he was. It was so obviously a disguise. This whole situation rubbed me the wrong way.

"You need change? How much?" New guy asked.

"Forty bucks." Churro guy replied. New guy whistled.

"That's a lot of cash." Regardless of how much he thought it was, he pulled out his wallet and pulled two twenty's out. "Here's your forty." Just then their last friend appeared. When I saw the disguise, everything clicked into place.

"What's up guys?" a rough old man voiced.

"Really Zach?" I asked "That disguise again? It seems to be a favorite of yours lately." A teasing tone took over my voice. He smiled  
"You figured that out a lot quicker this time." He was wearing essentially the same thing he wore all during the campaign, there were some minor coloring differences, but I could spot that particular disguise from a mile away. "Hi Macey, Liz, Bex" he nodded to each of them in turn.

"Hi Zach, Jonas, Grant, and…?" Macey trailed off. I took it upon myself to pull pieces off of the poorly disguised man.

"Preston." I answered for her. Macey gave him a wild look.

"Preston Winters?" Bex asked her british accent leaking in. Preston Winters was the son of the man running with Macey's dad for president. They had met a few months ago, luckily I was there to keep her from hurting the kid, she found him seriously annoying.

He looked sheepish "Hi Mace…"

"Well fine, don't acknowledge the rest of us" Bex muttered under her breath and I couldn't help but giggle.

"You're getting better Gallagher Girl." Zach said switching back to his regular voice. "Come on guys, we're obviously caught, let's go change." Grant or 'churro man' placed a closed sign on the churro cart, grabbed the last churro's on the cart and began to eat them as the boys walked off towards the bathrooms. We trailed behind them so when could question them when they were done changing. A few minutes later, the 4 boys we knew came out of the bathroom.

"Let's head to the boardwalk," Liz suggested.

"Good idea," Jonas readily agreed

I turned to walk in the direction of the boardwalk and Zach fell into step with me.

"So Gallagher Girl, how've you been?" He smirked at me, I resisted the urge to snort.

"You know, same old same old." I said nonchalantly. I knew I couldn't keep him guessing for long, he probably already knew more about what I had been up to then I did. I shrugged my shoulders. "What about you?" I tried to turn the conversation back to him, but he took it in stride.

"Nothing you should worry about." That stupid smirk was infuriating, yet Zach didn't really seem like Zach without it. I would never admit this out loud, but I kind of missed it.

"When did Preston start going to Blackthorne?" I turned the conversation around completely.

"He started up around the time we left for the exchange. He had to hang back and work on catching up to us." He seemed a little smug and not for the first time, I wanted to smack him. We approached the tons of games and contests they had out for tourists.

"Why don't we play some games?" Bes suggested with a confident tone. I knew we were about to witness a competition between Bex and Grant. This should be interesting.

"Really?" Macey asked "We're gonna be that cliche?" she looked a little annoyed at the idea. I'm not going to lie, I wasn't psyched about the idea but…

"Blending in Mace," I said a little solemnly "It's one of our main goals today." She didn't look happy about the idea but nodded.

Bex grinned "Excellent." I felt sorry for Grant, until I saw he had the same look on his face. They turned to the nearest game and slapped bills down on the counter. The rest of us held back, I didn't want to get in the middle of that.

"How about we head over there?" Zach suggested as he pointed to a game across the street. It was a darts game, I could handle darts.

"Sure." I agreed we strolled over the game, with Liz and Jonas heading to the game next to us. Macey and Preston had decided to try their luck against each other at the booth next to Bex and Grant. I placed my 50 on the counter, but Zach pressed it back into my hands.

"I got this." He winked at me and I held back both my blush and my annoyance. The guy running the game handed us each 5 darts. I hesitantly took aim. I didn't want to over achieve so I acted like I didn't know what I was doing.

I took aim for the wall. I knew I would miss, but if I hit all of them someone might get suspicious. Zach smiled at my 'attempt' as I made a wild throw at the wall. He also knew I could hit it, but apparently couldn't resist.

"Here," He said as he placed his arms around me and 'helped me' take aim. I will never admit how safe I felt with his arms around me, with his scent overcoming me he smelled like something that I could only describe as _Zach. _Together we threw a perfect shot and hit the balloon right in the middle. We threw the rest of them in rapid succession hitting the rest of them. Apparently discretion wasn't his specialty. Or maybe he just didn't care.

The guy running the booth was impressed. "You get two prizes." He said with eyebrows raised. I chose a blue stuffed monkey and Zach chose the pink stuffed monkey. I raised my eyebrows a little on his choice but didn't comment.

"Let's see who's winning the competition." I said, he nodded in agreement as we walked to our group of friends. We joined Macey and Preston and watched as Bex and Grant played skee ball to send a horse from one end of the booth to the other. Bex was in the lead and made every ball into the top slot.

"Who won the last round?" Zach asked

"Bex." Macey said with pride in her voice and we smiled at our over competitive friend.

Bex won by a landslide. Grant didn't seem to take it too hard. I wondered if he was throwing the game but as we progressed through the rest of the games on the boardwalk it was obvious he wasn't. Bex totally killed him in every game. She soon had a ton of prizes to cart around with her. She and Grant each chose one and gave the rest to some kids who hadn't won anything yet. Their parents didn't seem too happy but we ignored their looks.

"Let's get corndogs!" Liz suggested as we finished the last game.

"Yeah," Jonas agreed "There's a cart right over there." He pointed across the beach.

We headed towards the cart making idle chatter, we ate quickly. In the midday sun, it was burning hot. I let out a breath.

"Anyone else dying of heat?" I asked sarcastically.

"Yes!" Macey agreed

"Oh sorry," Zach said "I'll leave" his smirk seemed to be directed right at me. Macey, Bex, Liz and I rolled our eyes in synchronization. I thought I saw Jonas roll his eyes as well.

"There's a boutique right over there." Macey pointed out. "We could go buy something to get wet in and go swimming."

"We're almost of money" I reminded her.

"I have my card." She said pulling her credit card out of her back pocket. "Besides, you definitely need a bathing suit." I couldn't argue with that.

"We'll back in a few minutes." Liz said as we started towards the small shop.

"Whoa there," Preston said as they ran to catch up to us "we want to come too!"

"Hmm, can't imagine why." Macey said sarcastically but didn't comment on their accompanying us. As we reached the little shop, Macey immediately pulled us over to the bikini's.

She handed me a bikini with high waisted black bottoms, and a neon pink bandeau top and told me to try it on. I waited for her to hand one to Liz as well and we walked back to the changing rooms together. Liz had a neon blue bandeau top to go with bottoms like mine.

The swimsuit fit well. "Hey Liz, do you have yours on yet?" I called to her in the room next to mine.

"Yeah." She replied

"Good, come out here, I want to see them." Macey called. I stepped out of the dressing room to see Macey holding a neon green top and shorts like mine and Liz's. Of course, in true Bex fashion she had a blood red top with the same shorts as the rest of us. She looked us over.

"Wow." I just barely heard a small voice say from my right. I looked over to see Zach staring at me and I forced down a blush. I resisted the urge to cross my arms over my chest. I looked to his left to see Jonas blushing a bright red, Liz looked a little pink too but looked confident.

Macey nodded at the both of us. "Good, go grab your stuff, we'll wear them out." She instructed us. We nodded and bundled our clothes.

"We'll take it over to the car" I told liz as she held her clothes uncertainly.

"Great idea," Bex said as she exited her dressing room. I swear Grant's jaw dropped. I held back a giggle, but no one's reaction topped Prestons. He saw Macey and started to pass out, Grant and Zach caught him and slapped him to bring him to his senses. We burst into laughter.

"Come on guys." Macey led us to the counter. We payed then walked over to the car and shoved our stuff into the back seat.

"Can we put our stuff in here too?" Grant asked us.

"Sure" I said and the boys pulled off their shirts. I couldn't believe what I was seeing. With spies you come to expect everyone to have fit bodies, but _wow_. You gotta hand it to blackthorne, they know how to train their boys. I have never seen such perfectly sculpted bodies, even Jonas and Preston. Zach caught me looking at him.

"Like what you see?" He teased me but I refused to let him make me embarrassed.

"Not as much as you did, unfortunately" I said cheekily. That got a laugh out of Bex.

The boy's apparently knew we were coming to the beach because they all wore swim trunks under their shorts. Grant even had a necklace under his shirt, like a surfer you would see on a really cheesy movie. We shut the car and headed for the sand. We found a place that had less people than the rest of the beach. I pulled my hair tie off my wrist and began to put my hair in a ponytail. As I finished wrapping my hair tie around my hair, I felt strong arms wrap around my waist.

I could tell immediately from the smell that it was Zach, so I stuck to my cover and let out a girly scream and clung to him. I tried not to notice how strong his shoulders were, but it's impossible not too when you're in that position. Man, his shoulders were _strong_.

We hit the water and Zach turned around and fell on his back into the water. When we came up, I looked at the shore to see our friends laughing at us, I couldn't help but laugh along with them. I heard Zach's low chuckle in my ear and I turned to face him.

The waves crashed against us as I tightened my ponytail. Zach reached around and wound my hair through his fingers. "You look great Gallagher Girl." I couldn't help it, I blushed.

"You don't look to bad yourself." I said back and his smirk turned to a grin.

"I realized something when we left after the exchange," he said "I never officially asked you to be my girlfriend, so I'll do it now. Will you be my girlfriend Cammie?" I acted thoughtful for a minute.

"Of course!" I smiled and kissed him, he didn't hesitate to kiss me back.

I heard Grant's whistles and Bex's calls all the way down in the water, but I didn't stop kissing him until Macey stepped in.

"Alright Cam that's enough! People are starting to stare!" She yelled. That got me to pull away quick. Zach smirked at me then wrapped his arms around my waist.

"Come on in guys, the water's fine!" He called to our friends on the beach. Bex and Grant raced towards us and tackled us back under the water. We came up laughing when Bex declared a chicken fight.

"I don't know Bex, there are a lot of people around." I said uncertainly.

"Come on Cam," Zach said as he pulled me towards him "I won't let you fall, trust me." I nodded and went to climb on his shoulders. "Wrap your feet around my back." He whispered in my ear. I smiled to show I understood and climbed up onto his shoulders. I wrapped my feet around his back and he placed his hands on my knees to keep me balanced, as if I needed help. Grant and Zach stood in front of each other, I made the first move.

I reached forward and tried to push Bex to the side, she recovered quickly, and tried to counter. With my feet around Zach's back to keep me balanced, it didn't effect me at all. She frowned and I took the opportunity to shove her backwards. She tried to grab onto Grant but was too late and she fell backwards, taking Grant down with her. Zach and I cheered.

"Cammie, be careful up there!" Liz called to me as she and Jonas waded over to us. Preston appeared to be trying to persuade Macey to come get into the water but soon gave up.

I laughed a little "It'll be okay Lizzie."

"Don't be so sure!" Zach called as he turned and once again fell backwards into the water, taking me down with him. I came up laughing as I swatted him playfully.

"Will you guys help me get Macey down here?" Preston asked as he walked into the cool ocean water.

"Sure, stay down here." Bex said

"We'll be back in a minute." I said as the girls and I headed back towards shore. At the last second, someone's hand enclosed by wrist and Zach whirled me back around and kissed me softly. I opened my eyes to see him smiling, yes actually smiling, at me.

"Don't take too long." He said

I smiled at him "We won't don't worry" I turned around again to see a mischievous look in Bex's eyes. Oh this was so planned out. I took a deep breath and walked up the beach in the Florida heat. Time for interrogation.

As we got closer to Macey she sat up and Liz and Bex sandwiched me between them.

"Cameron Ann Morgan, what on earth was _that_?" Macey asked with the biggest grin on her face. From her tone you could tell she wasn't angry but she was serious. Answers would be heard one way or another, so I decided to go the easy way. I plopped myself down in front of Macey and began to relay the tale starting from when Zach picked me up.

Throughout my story the girls laughed or awed but one thing remained constant, they smiled the entire time.

"Remind me to interrogate the boy." Bex said thoughtfully.

"I'll help." Liz said

"Me too." Macey said

"So will I," My mom said as she and Mr Solomon walked over. "Who are we interrogating?" she asked

"Zach" Macey answered.

"Oh good, I want to help too." Mr Solomon added in "Why are we interrogating him?" He asked.

Macey gave them a shortened version of the events. Mr Solomon got an evil grin on his face.

"I _really_ want to help." I raised my eyebrows at him

"Any specific reason?" I asked him, eyeing my mother.

"Other than the obvious?" he seemed confused

"There's an obvious reason?" Now it was my turn to be confused.

"Well, with your father MIA, it falls to his best friend to play the part of over protective role model." My mom explained.

"And here I was thinking it fell to me." Bex said sourly. She didn't like the idea of someone trying to take over for my dad, I didn't either as a matter of fact luckily for me Bex knew that and expressed it for me.

"Trust me, I'm not here to take any one's place, I'm just here to lend a helping hand." He explained, almost as if he could read our minds.

"So you admit that's why you're here this summer?" I asked eyeing him. The interrogation seemed to have changed from me to Joe Solomon, which was a pleasant surprise.

"I never admitted to anything," he said calmly "look, here come your boyfriends."

"I don't have a boyfriend!" Liz exclaimed

My friends immediately broke into defensive arguments

"You think I would date _that_?" Macey asked incredulously

"Puh-lease, I have standards!" Bex said acting out a bratty american perfectly, which led me to believe she was lying.

"Hi guys!" I called to Zach, Jonas, Grant, and Preston as soon as they got close enough to hear the girls. I figured it would get my friends to stop talking.

Zach came up and sat behind me and wrapped his arms around my waist, Preston shook his hair, getting Macey wet, Jonas stood shyly by Liz, and Grant went up to Bex and threw his arm around her shoulder just to get elbowed in the gut. He then retreated to a more respectable distance. Smart boy.

"So guys, what've you been up to today?" Mr S asked with a pointed look at Zach.

"Oh, you know, games, swimming, walking, talking, that sort of thing." Zach answered nonchalantly. "Actually, we came up here to see if the girls wanted to rent some surfboards, maybe we could get them to stand up on them before the day is over." I resisted the urge to slap him, this could work to our advantage.

Slowly, carefully, I made eye contact with each of my friends "I don't know, it sounds kinda hard…" I said shyly. My friends caught on immediately.

"Yeah," Liz agreed "I'm clumsy enough on land, imagine what would happen if I got on the water" she acted scared, so Jonas jumped to reassure her.

"It's not that hard Lizzie, besides if I can do it, you can too" He smiled at her.

"I really don't want to get my hair wet, but if the girls try it, I will too" Macey said confidently.

"I'm always up for a challenge." Bex said punching her hand. "You ready for this Cam?" she asked me.

I bit my lip uncertainly. "I suppose…" I trailed off.

"Don't worry Gallagher Girl, I won't let you get hurt." Zach whispered in my ear. I tried so hard not to roll my eyes.

"Lizzie?" I asked her.

"Well...I guess…" she said clenching her fists. The boys gave each other looks, we were in, they totally fell for it.

My mom gave us each 20 bucks to go rent surfboards for the rest of the day, after we all had our boards, we went for the water. We went out a few yards from shore, and the boys asked us to get on our boards.

"Okay, it's really pretty simple, when you see a wave paddle out in front of it and then when the water catches the board, stand up." Grant explained. This time I rolled my eyes.

"Sounds easy enough." Bex caught my eyes and I have to admit, she did a really good job of acting like she was uncertain. She gave me a 'reassuring' smile.

"Here comes a wave, try to catch it." Zach called "Wow, here come a bunch of waves, the surf looks good, go for it girls, we'll watch you and give you advice when you need it." I didn't fail to notice how he said _when_ instead of _if_.

The girls and I paddled out of earshot, towards the approaching waves. "Bex, you go first, they'll be expecting you to be able to at least catch a wave, Mace you head out after, show 'em what you got, I'll go after you, and Lizzie make them pay for ever doubting us." I instructed.

"Wow Cam, you devious little thinker, you" Macey winked at me "I'm so proud, we've taught you well." She and Bex slapped each others hands.

"I'm heading out!" Bex called and we cheered her on. She caught the wave perfectly, she started heading towards the boys and Macey Liz and I ducked under her wave.

"Wish me luck!" Macey called as she went for her wave. She looked perfect as she started to glide over the water.

"Show them what you got Lizzie!" I called as I headed for my wave.

"You got this Cam!" She called back to me.

I paddled like crazy to catch the wave, I wasn't too nervous, we'd been surfing the whole day before. I finally felt my board get stuck in the edge of the wave, I stood up just in time to see Liz duck under the wave. I smiled as I felt the wind roll over me as I approached my friends. The boys all had slack jaws and Bex and Macey were clapping and calling. I made a hang loose sign as I neared them and jumped off my board and swam towards them.

I fell into line next to Macey just in time to see Liz catch her wave. The thing was a monster she took it in stride. She held her own on the water with ease and even got in the tube. She jumped off right before she hit us. She surfaced next to us with a grin on her face. We cheered and clapped as she bent at the waist in a little bow. We looked over at the boys, who all had big eyes. I haven't laughed that hard in forever.

"How!" Was all Jonas was able to get out. His words seemed to knock the boys out of their stupor and Zach and Grant composed themselves.

"I take it you girls have surfed before?" Zach asked

"Once, yesterday." Macey answered.

"You can't fool us McHenry, that kind of skill doesn't come from one day of surfing that comes from years of experience." Grant argued.

"Hate to break it to you, but yesterday really was the first time any of us have surfed." Bex told them.

Preston snorted "Yeah, sure whatever you say Baxter" He said rudely as he turned away from us. I saw Bex's temper flare. I paddled myself backwards as she launched herself at Preston. We let her pummel him for a few seconds than Macey and I swam forwards and pulled her off of him.

"That was a bad move on your part Winters" I said coldly.

"At least you guys learned a valuable lesson today." Macey said in the same tone.

"And what would that be?" Jonas asked nervously

"Never underestimate a Gallagher Girl." Liz said.

"We thought after spending a semester with us you would've known better" Bex said as she rearranged her hair.

"You can't blame the guy, he was hoping for an easy way to spend the day," Zach said "we all were." Macey obviously heard something that I didn't.

"You mean an easy way to get some action." Macey retorted. "I would bet that it was Prestons idea. He probably told you the benefits and you all thought it would be good fun."

The look on Jonas' face gave them away. At least one of them had a conscience.

I looked at Zach accusingly. "What a pigheaded thing to do."

"I couldn't agree more." Bex said "But these Blackthorne Boys forgot one crucial thing."

"And what would that be?" Grant asked sarcastically.

"These aren't just girls," Zach added in "they're Gallagher Girls."

"Precisely." I stared at him.

"Well, now that we're all on the same page," Bex said "let's see if you guys can surf as well as you claim." She broke into a grin "Wouldn't want you to be shown up by a bunch of girls now would we?" And just like that, all was forgiven. Gallagher Girls were just as moody as other girls, but this was our summer, and we weren't about to let some guys ruin it a few days in.

"Well ladies," Grant started "Sit back, relax and enjoy the show." The boys paddled out to try and catch some waves. We faced our boards towards the horizon and linked our ankles underwater to keep together.

Jonas went first, he was actually pretty good. He managed to catch his wave as quickly as any of us had. Next was Preston, you could tell he wasn't the best in the group, he wobbled to his feet but didn't fall which was impressive for someone who hadn't been training to have perfect balance his whole life. Grant decided to show off a little bit, when he climbed to his feet he almost immediately went into a hand-stand. He lifted one hand off his board and started doing a weird push-up thing one handed on his board, it was actually impressive until he got tossed off his board. We laughed a little but he came up smiling. You gotta love it when someone can laugh at their mistakes or failures.

Zach went last. He too decided to show off. He stood, then sat, then lounged, then spun, then jumped off his board in a perfect front flip. He landed in a dive a few feet in front of us. Apparently he took his ankle band off because his board started to float away. Liz made a wild grab for it when he popped up in front of me. He braced his hands on my board and kissed me. He kept himself up on the board as one hand moved to cradle my face. I leaned forward and wrapped my arms around his neck but still kept us upright.

Cat calls and whistles soon followed. I couldn't help but wonder if they would ever get sick of that.

"I'm going to drown you two if you don't knock it off!" Macey's cynical response came. I pulled away but laughed.

"Wow McHenry," Zach said "you're so nice, said no one ever." He said in a teasing voice. Macey smiled then reached over and shoved him backwards, rocking my board. I moved back a little farther on my board, I couldn't help but smile a bit, after all it was a little funny.

"Cam, you're boyfriend's a jerk." She said as she dusted off her hands

All the sudden, Zach jumped out of the water and landed on the front of my board, almost sending us into the water. I shrieked a little and moved back to balance it.

"What about me?" He asked. I could hear the smirk on his face.

"Get that smirk of your face Goode!" Macey responded. I so called it.

"Geez, you two fight like an old married couple!" I teased.

"Do not!" The responded in unison.

The rest of us burst into laughter. Zach moved closer to the middle of the board, and I did too.

"Hey Zach," Liz asked in between giggles "do you want your board back?"

He shrugged "Eventually, for now, I'm perfect right where I am." We had reached the middle of the board, so he reached around and grabbed my arms, wrapping them around his waist. I leaned up against his admittedly very muscular back. Out on the ocean there was a cool breeze, and even though we were in Florida, he was very warm. It was pretty comfortable.

"Anybody know what time it is?" Preston asked.

"5:33" The rest of us responded in unison.

"Man, where has the day gone?" He asked rhetorically. The boys paddled in front of us to make a oval/circle shaped thing so we could talk better.

Jonas began to answer his question. "Well, the day started when-"

"Rhetorical question J-Man" Grant cut him off.

"Man I hate those." He said Liz reached over and patted his hand.

"Me too." She smiled at him. They sat there looking at each other for a while until Grant began to narrate.

"She looked lovingly into his eyes, and in his mind, it seemed that no one would ever be more perfect-OW!" Bex slapped him, hard.

"Oooo." I said in sympathy, you could already see the red mark forming. With any luck it wouldn't bruise. "Does anybody else want food?" I asked changing the subject.

I was met with a chorus of yeah's. "Let's go see if Rachel and Mr. Solomon want to go out to eat." Macey suggested

"Last one back's a rotten egg!" I exclaimed as I shoved Zach sideways off my board. The girls laughed as we paddled to catch the closest wave.

We made our way to shore with relative ease. We grabbed our boards and sprinted up the beach towards my mom and a laughing Solomon. We landed in a heap in front of them, none of us breathing heavily. The boys came a few seconds after piling on top of us. We groaned when their weight hit us.

"So," I began "why don't we go out to dinner?" I asked my mom.

"Not now, we're staying until 11:00 remember?" she said

"But we're hungry now." I retorted

"Then go get food, there are plenty of things open." She suggested

"We're out of money." I replied

"Already?" She asked.

"Bex and Grant played every game." I said. She looked up at the sky like 'what am I going to do with you?' Then replied

"Alrighty then." She reached down into her purse, she then handed me $150 "We can make something back at the house a little later, but for now this is all you get. Go get something to hold you over and ride the ferris wheel or something. If you use too much energy we'll have to buy more food."

"Thanks mom!" I replied inching forward to grab the money. Everyone else jumped up making it easier to move.

"Thanks Mrs. Morgan!" They replied except for Grant who yelled. "Thanks mom!" I laughed at him and slapped him lightly on the head. "Does that mean I can join the family? Cause your mom is so much cooler than mine!" Everybody else ran off, I don't know why, I had the money.

I rolled my eyes at him "Sure Grant, you can be my adopted son." My mom replied with a smile on her face, she would never admit it but she always wanted a son before she had a daughter.

"Really?" My mom nodded, and weirdly enough he seemed sincere. "Sweet!"

"I've always wanted a brother!" I yelled truthfully, maybe my mom wasn't the only one who wished that she had a boy first.

"You're probably gonna regret getting stuck with me!" he yelled back.

"I seriously doubt it!" I said crossing my arms.

"Go!" My mom said as she laughed and shooed us with her hands.

Grant ran forward and threw me over his shoulder.

"Whoa!" I said as the world was tipped upside down.

"Told you!" he said as he took off running to catch up with our friends.

I started laughing at his giddiness and he chuckled along with me. I could picture his grin and it just made me laugh harder, which made Grant laugh harder. When we reached our friends I could barely breathe.

He set me down on the ground and I clutched my sides and continued to laugh, when I saw Grant doubled over in laughter I could barely stand up straight I clutched his shoulder to keep myself up right.

"I feel like we missed some big joke." Macey said. There was actually nothing that was funny, and when I came to this realization I only laughed harder, taking wheezing breaths when I could.

"Yup, we missed something." Bex said, by this time Liz and Jonas were starting to laugh too. When Preston started laughing, I fell to the ground, his laugh was hilarious. I've never tested the theory that laughter was contagious but right then I knew it was true because before you knew it we were all rolling on the ground laughing. It came to the point where Grant wasn't even making noise.

By the time we all calmed down, we were wiping tears from our eyes. I leaned back against Zach and took deep breaths. We all sat there in the middle of the dock for a few minutes.

"Do we get to know what's so funny now?" Macey asked. I started to giggle again. Liz held out a hand to stop me.

"Please, no more," She said with a smile on her face "I can't handle anymore."

Zach wrapped his arms around my waist as I tried to explain. "There isn't really anything that's funny." I said as I made eye contact with Grant.

"Then why were you laughing so hard?" Zach asked confused.

"Well, it started out with me imagining Grant's grin as we were running over here, then we just started laughing and couldn't stop" I explained.

"Yeah, about that, why were you carrying Cammie?" Zach asked Grant. The possessive undertone in his voice made me smile.

"Oh yeah, I've been adopted as Cammie's big brother, so you're gonna have to go through me to get to her, and if you hurt her, I'll pummel you." Grant puffed out his chest and I tried not to laugh.

"Okay then." Zach said as he chuckled in my ear.

"Whoa, whoa, whoa, so Grant is an official sibling and I'm not?" Bex asked offended. I couldn't help but laugh a little.

"Come on Bex, we've been sisters since the day we met! Same with Liz and Macey. I figured it just kind of went without saying, but if it makes you feel better, you're now officially my sister." I smiled at her and she nodded in contentment.

"Let's get food now," I said as I grabbed Zachs' hand and pulled us both to our feet. "I'm still starving."

"Corn dogs sound good to everyone else?" Jonas asked.

With all replies positive, we bought as many corn dogs as we could carry, sat down and pigged out. After our extremely unhealthy snack, we had just enough to ride the ferris wheel.

We bought our tickets and got in line, unfortunately it seemed that everyone else at the beach got in line before us, it look like a good hour and a half wait. We figured we might as well wait in line, go for one last swim then chill on the beach until 11.

"Okay, seeing as we'll be here for a while, let's play a game." Macey suggested.

"Can it be 'let's see who can run to the car the fastest and get jackets'?" Liz asked and I agreed with her. It was getting colder and the girls and I were still only in our bikini's.

Bex rolled her eyes. "It's not that cold." She folded her arms and popped a hip. She kind of reminded me of Abby for a second, but then that image was gone and all I could see was pure Bex.

"Come on Bex, me and you can grab stuff from the car and be right back. It'll be faster than anything else." Grant suggested. Bex thought about it then nodded. "Race you there!" He yelled as he took off towards the car. I saw Bex get a competitive look in her eyes as she sprinted after him.

"Seriously though, let's play a game." Macey said getting back to her main point.

"Can't it wait 'til they get back?" I pleaded, I knew whatever game it was it would involved some major embarrassment on my part. She rolled her eyes.

"Fine." We stood in silence listening to the chatter of those around us. In the distance you could hear the music from the ferris wheel.

A few minutes later, we saw a rumpled looking Bex and Grant walking towards us holding hands. I made careful eye contact with Liz and Macey, they saw it too.

"Hey guys!" Grant greeted us cheerfully. We all eyed their hands but they seemed to ignore the hint. They handed us t-shirts to put on to help keep us warm.

"I need to go to the bathroom," Liz suddenly announced and Macey caught on fast.

"Me too, I want to check my hair. Wanna come with us Cam?" She looked at me meaningfully yet still casually.

"Sure, come on Bex." I grabbed her arm and I knew she wouldn't dare fight me in the middle of public. She kissed Grant on the check and I pulled harder.

"Bye, be back soon." She whispered and we walked towards the bathroom. As soon as we were out of earshot, we attacked her with questions.

"What was _that_ about?" We asked her quickly.

She got a loopy grin on her face and forgot to be mysterious for a minute. "Grant asked me to be his girlfriend!" She exclaimed.

I squealed "Yay!" Liz clapped her hands and Macey smiled.

"How'd he do it?" She asked.

"He pushed me up on the car and kissed me, he asked me after that." She got a dreamy look on her face. I waved my hand in front of her face a little bit to get her attention. We reached the bathroom laughing.

"Now all we gotta do is get Jonas and Preston to ask out Liz and Macey." I said as I elbowed Bex in the side.

"Yeah," she agreed "The hardest will be Jonas though, he's pretty shy." Macey stopped primping for a minuted and turned to look at us.

"Excuse me," she said deadly serious "what makes you think I like _Preston Winters_?" Her voice raised a pitch on the last 2 words. I eyed Bex and Liz.

"YOU SO LIKE HIM!" We exclaimed at the same time. She looked down at the ground ever so slightly, and we laughed at her confirmation.

"Forget it guys, Preston will never ask me out…" She seemed really down.

"Are you kidding me?" I asked incredulously

"She has got to be kidding." Bex said.

"There's no way she's serious." Liz said as we sat and looked at her.

"What?" She asked us

"Come on, you're Macey McHenry!" I said "What guy wouldn't want you!"

"You're gorgeous," Liz added

"You're nice," Bex said

"And you kick some serious butt." I finished "Of course he's going to ask you out, it's just a question of when."

"Do you guys really think so?" she asked hopefully.

"Yeah!" We responded

"Then we just need to worry about Liz." She said and we turned to look at Liz. She turned bright red.

"W-we should p-probably get b-b-back." She said as she turned and left the bathroom. We laughed and followed her out.

When we made it back to the guys, we found they had made a little progress in the line.

"Okay, no more excuses, let's play a game." Macey said as soon as we hit our spot in line.

"What do you wanna play?" Bex asked.

"Never have I ever." She said "Rules, gender with the most people gets the point. Gender with the most points at the end wins. Let's say losing gender has to do whatever the opposite gender does."

"For how long?" Grant asked.

"One favor, so they really have to think of something good." She said with an evil grin.

"Okay, guys start." Zach said, I left his side to go stand by my friends.

"Hmm…Never have I ever…Passed out." Jonas said.

Liz and I both raised our hands, it wasn't something I was proud of but it was something that happened. After a moment's hesitation Macey raised her hand as well.

The only person to raise their hand from the boys was Preston. Point girls.

"Never have I ever...played spin the bottle." Grant and Zach raised their hands. Bex and I eyed each other, then raised our hands too. That got a surprised look out of Zach, and Macey.

"Tie," Macey pronounced "whoever has the most interesting story gets the point."

"Now you're making rules up!" I protested.

She shrugged "I don't hear anyone protesting."

"I'm protesting!" I exclaimed

"I'm over ruling!" she said "Come on Cam, do it for the point!" I groaned but nodded.

"They go first." Bex said and the boys shrugged.

"It was for a party someone threw over winter break a couple years ago." Zach said. "But here's the kicker, it was in Germany." He looked proud of himself. I eyed Bex and gestured for her to tell the story.

We moved up a few feet before she started. "Okay, so Cam and I were in Nebraska a summer or 2 ago with her grandparents while my parents were on a mission." She took a deep breath. "We were down by this lake a while away from Cam's grandparent's place, we were there with a bunch of kids from the neighboring Ranch's and they had a weird set of rules. We were on the dock that led to the lake so the rules were, if you didn't kiss then you had to take a swig of lake water from the bottle or you could jump naked in the lake. One kid was a total germaphobe, I'm still not entirely sure why he was there."

"Because he's a jerk," I cut in "No one likes the kid but if he finds out you didn't invite him to something, you get heat about it for ages." I rolled my eyes "His name is Samson, by the way." I added in unnecessarily. I hated the kid. We moved up again. We were getting close now.

"Yeah, so he spun the bottle and it landed on Cammie, we all knew there was no way he was going to do it, so we just listed his options. He said there was no way he was gonna drink out of that nasty bottle so he decided to strip and jump. After he jumped in, we grabbed his stuff and split." She looked at me and we laughed at the memory.

"He was in the lake all night, he was too scared to get out after we left." I finished and we all laughed for a while.

"Okay, that's hilarious, girls win." Macey declared.

"I don't know, I thought Grant and Zach's story was pretty entertaining." Jonas tried.

"Maybe," Preston cut in "But it wasn't that entertaining."

"I hate this game, we've barely gone 2 rounds and it's very clear that the girls are going to win" Grant whined.

"We can play a different game." I suggested. I hated this game.

"Yeah like truth or dare." Macey suggested.

"Or we can keep playing this game." I said as I hurriedly changed my mind.

"Nah, we're almost there anyways," Zach said as we moved closer, one more round and we would make it on. I made a mental note to thank him later. "We can play it when we're back at the house when there's more stuff to do and less people." I made a mental note to hit him later. So much for a knight in shining armor.

"Where are you guys staying?" Liz asked.

"At the house with you guys." Jonas answered. The girls and I exchanged looks. Looks like we were sharing rooms again.

We finally reached the gate to go on the ferris wheel. "Four to a cart!" The man running the machine yelled as we headed for a gate. Zach grabbed my hand and I reached for Bex's arm to find that she had the same thought I did. Macey and Liz would have boyfriends at the end of the night if Bex and I had anything to do with it.

With linked arms Bex and I lead our boyfriends to a cart ignoring the looks that Macey shot at our backs. When we reached out cart, Zach and I sat across from Grant and Bex. I leaned my head on his shoulder and took a contented sigh. I could practically hear his smirk as we started to move upwards.

"Oh man," Grant said "Macey looks ticked off." Bex Zach and I all looked towards them and saw Macey's mad face. Bex and I exchanged glances and I knew she saw the happy undertone in her face. She never stopped using a cover.

Liz and Jonas were both bright red as the stood side by side. I laughed a little. "Look at Jonas and Liz." I said calling attention to them. I felt Zach press closer against me to get a closer look. He chuckled softly in my ear.

"Come on Jo-Bro." He whispered quietly. "You can do it!" He cheered him on. Cautiously, Jonas reached over and grabbed Liz's hand. She jumped a little but then took a step closer to him. She look up and caught my gaze and grinned as she stepped into the cart with Jonas by her side, lending a hand to help her in.

"Yes!" Grant exclaimed as he and Zach slapped hands. They leaned back in the carts and I leaned into Zach who placed an arm around my shoulders.

"They will officially be a couple by the end of this ride." Bex proclaimed and I smiled for Liz.

"Hopefully Macey will have warmed up to Preston by then too." Grant said putting his arm around Bex. Bex and I made eye contact and she smiled.

"I think she'll warm up to him quicker than you think." I said mysteriously.

"Do you know something we don't know?" Zach asked at my cryptic statement.

"We know a lot of things you don't know." Bex said winking at me and I giggled.

"Look where we are." Zach whispered in my ear and I looked out the side. We were at the top of the ferris wheel.

I turned back to look at him just in time to catch a kiss. He cradled my face with one hand, the other still around my shoulder. He kissed me sweetly and softly. I took a deep breath as he pulled away, breathing him in as we settled in again.

I looked across the cart to see Bex and Grant starting a full on make-out session. I couldn't resist. I cat called at the precise moment Zach whistled. The broke apart startled as the glared at us. I laughed a little. Revenge was sweet.

When we got off the ferris wheel, we stood over by the exit to wait for our friends. We weren't surprised to see Liz and Jonas holding hands, but we were surprised to see Macey laughing with Preston.

I caught Macey's eye and raised an eyebrow at her. She shook her head once, she would explain later.

"Okay, what do you say to one last wave before dark?" Bex asked.

"Let's do it!" I exclaimed and recieved cheers in response. We ran to the beach, took off our t-shirts and ran to the water. The water was cool over my damp swim suit and I took off out towards the setting sun.

We surfed for an hour more, until it was too dark to see anymore. As I caught wave after wave, racing Zach for the best spot on a wave and shoving Bex off her board, I realized that no matter what the other Gallagher Girls were doing, there was no way they would top this summer.

As last light on the horizon disappeared, we made our way to shore. We found my mom and Solomon waiting for us by our t-shirts with a stack of towels.

"We thought you might want these." My mom admitted as she handed them out to us. "We'll leave soon," she continued "but you have to see this, it's the best part."  
I settled in the cool sand and Zach came over and cuddled up behind me. Macey came and sat on my right and Bex came on my right with Liz on her other side. Grant settled behind Bex in the same position as Zach.

A loud bang sounded on the horizon. A crack followed as the sky lit up with colors. For the next half hour, we watched the fireworks. As the night progressed, the air got cooler, and Zach moved his arms around my middle to keep me warm.

When the last burst of color lit up the sky, I was starting to feel the days activities catch up with. I was feeling a little drowsy as we walked back to the car laughing at Grant's impressions of the fireworks. We piled in the car, My mom and Solomon were in the front, Liz, Jonas and Preston were behind them. Macey, Bex, and Grant settled in behind them, and Zach and I opted to sit in the trunk of the SUV.

"Keep a good hold on her Mr. Goode." Mr Solomon said as we pulled out of the parking lot.

"Wouldn't dream of letting her go, Mr S." He replied as he wrapped his arms around me and I settled into his chest. As we pulled closer to the house, I dozed into a short sleep, feeling more secure in Zach's arms then I ever could in any seat belt.

**A/N: Tried to make it longer to make up for my lack of updating, sorry about that. As for the random facts that popped up, let's say if I mention it, it happened. This story doesn't really take place at a specific time. **


	7. Chapter 7

**A/N: Sorry guys, finals are here at school, so the chapters are short and it's harder to update /:**

Chapter 7

"Cam," Zach said nudging me awake "Wake up, we're back." I sat up off his chest and shook my head to wake myself up. I stretched my arms above my head. It was around 11:30.

"Can we get food?" Grant asked "I'm starving!" we all nodded in agreement. My mom thought it over for a minute.

"Most of the food we have is frozen stuff, I'm not much of a chef even when it comes to frozen foods." My mom admitted.

"How about I drive to the chinese place just outside of town?" Mr Solomon suggested. "I can grab enough food to keep the kids from complaining and give the girls some time to change." He said glancing at our bathing suits which were visible under our t-shirts.

"Good idea," my mom said "I'll help the boys get settled in."

I couldn't help but roll my eyes and the suggested undertone. She really meant 'I'll make sure the boys stay away from the girls and their room.'

Mr. Solomon got back into the car and left to the chinese place.

"Alright girls, two of you go pack your bags, two to a room." she headed towards the house. She was just out of earshot when Zach found the loophole.

"I'll room with Cammie." He said throwing an arm around my shoulder.

"You'll room with Jonas" I said while pushing his arm off my shoulder and pulling Liz towards me in defense. He gave me a sour look but went to stand by Jonas.

"Look's like I'm with Macey." Bex said.

"Or," Grant popped in "you could be with me." He said with an eyebrow raised.

"Oh, she's definitely with Macey." Macey said pulling Bex safely away from Grant. I laughed and looped my arm through Liz's.

"Come on Lizzie, let's go get you packed!" I exclaimed as we went through the house up to her room.

We packed diligently for about a half an hour. We were just lugging the last of her stuff into my room when we heard Macey and Bex fighting over space in her room. We glanced through the open doorway, past the bathroom, and into their room. Liz and I gave each other a look like 'I'm so glad I'm rooming with you!'

"What's all the screaming about?" Jonas asked as he came into our room followed closely by Zach.

"Apparently their closet is too small…" Liz said with a soft smile on her face. We exchanged a look and giggled.

"I will never understand women." Jonas said with a look towards the noise. Just then we heard a thud on the wall.

I ran through the bathroom towards and screaming Bex and Macey.

"Whoa!" I said as I ducked beneath a shoe being thrown in my direction. "What's going on?" I asked

They both simultaneously started yelling at me. "One at a time!" I stated.

"She is taking up way too much space!" Macey exclaimed

"I am not!" Bex exclaimed in a full british accent "She's the one with the bloody full closet of stuff she doesn't need!"

"Can't you just lay it out in your suitcases and in the dresser like sane people?" I asked

They gave eachother a look.

"I suppose…" Macey said.

Bex nodded her agreement.

"See? Was that so hard?" I asked as I rolled my eyes and went back to my room. I flopped on the bed. "They're going to kill each other." I stated plainly.

"Then it's our job to make sure they don't" Liz said as she glanced worriedly in the direction of Macey and Liz.

"Zach what are you doing?" I asked as he hurriedly dropped what he was doing by the side of my bed and looked up innocently."

"Absolutely nothing." He said. I rolled my eyes.

"Yeah, sure, will you guys leave so we can shower and change?" I asked impatiently.

"Touchy…" Jonas said as the exited the room.

"I'm going to shower really fast" I said as I walked towards the bathroom.

"Okay, I'll take one after you." Liz said as she started to pull out things to change into.

I showered and washed faster than I ever have before. I left the steamy bathroom as Liz entered. I changed into some pajama shorts and an oversized t-shirt. I was towel drying my hair as Liz left the bathroom.

"Is my brush in there?" I asked Liz

"I think so." She said.

I got up to go check. I found it waiting on the counter. I grabbed it and told Macey and Bex they could use the bathroom.

I brushed my hair and waited for Liz to do the same before we headed downstairs.

We went to sit down at the table and we saw the boys staring intently at cards in their hands.

"What are you guys playing?" Liz asked.

"Go fish…" Grant said as he stared at each of the boys in turn before asking Preston for an 8. Preston forked it over and Liz and I tried not to laugh.

"Quick question, why are you playing go fish?" I asked.

"It's the only game we know how to play." Preston said.

"I know how to play more games!" Jonas exclaimed.

"Yeah, but you suck at explaining." Zach said.

Liz and I looked at each other and picked up the cards, ignoring the boys protests.

I sat down and started shuffling while Liz explained our favorite game.

"Okay, this is practically poker but not really, It's called Anaconda. Each player is dealt six cards. In the first round, each player selects three unwanted cards and passes them facedown to the player on his left. No player is allowed to see his new cards until everyone has passed. The second round is the same as the first, only with two cards, then a third round with one card. A round of betting comes after the cards have been dealt and again after each round of passing. Players now have six cards in their hand, from which the best 5-card poker hand wins. Get it?" she finished.

"I think so, but what do we bet with?" Grant asked.

"Anything you can bet." I said. "I could bet two bags of chips, a secret, a story, anything."

"Okay," Zach said rolling up his sleeves. "Let's do this."

And so it began, at first, Liz and I won every round. When Bex and Macey came down, they helped us kick butt. Eventually, the boy's luck changed. They started getting cards that made no sense. After about 3 rounds, I watched each of the boys carefully, then I noticed the switch. They had cards in their laps. It made sense once I thought about it. Each round, one of the boys would volunteer to shuffle and deal. They must make the switch then.

"Food!" Mr Solomon announced as he walked in the door, then I got an idea.

The boy's crowded the table, I grabbed Macey and gestured for Liz and Bex to follow.

"I have an idea," I explained quickly as we walked upstairs. "The boys are totally cheating, so from now on, pass the cards that could help someone elses hands when you're passing to one of the girls" I said. "It may not be much, but it could keep the guys from totally kicking our butts." I said as we went into Macey and Bex's room.

"Even better, pass cards that make no sense to the guys, and try to catch them in the act of cheating" Bex added in. We finalized our plans to convey what cards we had and went over the plan one final time.

"We all clear?" Liz asked. We nodded our agreement, grabbed some socks as a cover and went downstairs.

We ate faster than ever and then sat down for a final round of Anaconda. Through a series of taps, coughs and fidgets we managed to get a good hand for Liz and one for Bex. I handed off ridiculous cards to the boys and the girls took the final round of Anaconda in our name. After the scores were added, the girls had one. I guess cheaters never prosper.

"Let's watch a movie," I suggested.

"Whoa there, it's almost 2:30 in the morning, you sure about this?" My mom asked.

"Definitely." I said

"Totally." Bex added

"Completely." Macey said

"Entirely." Liz finished

She gave us all a look, she didn't look like she was going to stop us, but she might put up a fight. She surprised us all by nodding "All right, don't stay up too late." She headed off towards her room with Mr. Solomon behind her. There was another room down the hallway, an office with a pull out couch, but I think we all knew better. The boys started to chuckled and my mom shot them a look. Then I understood, silence about where Mr. Solomon was sleeping for 24 hours in exchange for leaving us on our own.

We walked over by the couch, argued about what movie to watch, and stuck Mrs. Doubtfire in the DVD played before settling down to watch. I cuddled up in Zach's lap with Bex and Grant next to us on one couch, Liz, Jonas, Macey, and Preston all sat carefully next to each other on the other couch.

As the movie played, I felt myself get more and more comfortable. Zach started playing with my hair which didn't help. About half way through I was fighting to stay awake.

"Go to sleep Gallagher Girl," Zach's voice whispered in my ear. "It's okay." He said as he pulled a blanket over us. I fought sleep for a minute longer before giving in and falling into a deep blissful sleep.


End file.
